Contents

Comico was founded in 1982[1] by a group of artists and publishers who had previously printed a local school paper called Duckwork in the Norristown area.[citation needed] Their first book, Primer #1, attempted to establish a large black-and-white line, featuring the premiere stories of Victor, Slaughterman, Az, Mr. Justice and Skrog. Only Slaughterman, Az, and Skrog made it out of the pages of Primer #1.

Primer #2 would premiere what would be Comico's flagship title for most of its existence: Grendel. Matt Wagner's Grendel quickly leaped from Primer into three issues of its own black-and white-series before Comico ended its black-and-white titles in 1984 with Primer #6. (Sam Kieth's character The Maxx—later to have his own Image Comics title—was first seen in Primer #5.)

Although an ownership dispute[2] led to Evangeline moving to First Comics to be continued for two more years,[3] Comico landed a major license in Robotech. 1985 saw the debut of three Robotech series (with a schedule that released a Robotech comic book once every two weeks), as well as Next Man in 1984 and Justice Machine in 1986. (Another ownership dispute led to Next Man moving to another publisher, but this was offset by Comico's acquiring Elementals from the defunct Texas Comics.)[3]

While Comico had proven to be a serious contender as a major independent comic company, a mid-1986 decision to distribute to the newsstand market spelled the end of the comic company.[4] This significantly raised the number of prints for each issue, but also increased the number of issues being sent back that did not sell. Refunds for those returned issues ate into the publisher's budget very quickly (and, among other things, they had trouble paying their printing bills).[5] In response to this, Comico began to push out a number of new titles, aimed at spreading out the number of returned comics between various titles.[citation needed] In 1988 they began distributing their titles to the bookstore market,[6] and in 1989 partnered with DC Comics to distribute their comics to a wider market.[7]

In 1990, the owners of the company sold Comico[11][12] to Andrew Rev, who released the rest of the original staff and began working on relaunching the company.[13][14][15] With the planned relaunch, Rev held onto as many of the original Comico series he could.

Most significantly hit were Matt Wagner's creations Mage and Grendel. Mage II: The Hero Defined, expected out in 1989, was not published until the late 1990s. Both Comico and Wagner had jointly copyrightedMage and Grendel, and with Comico in bankruptcy, that half of the copyright was claimed as a company asset.[16] A two-part Batman/Grendel crossover, Devil's Riddle and Devil's Masque, was written and drawn by Wagner and colored at the time of the Comico series, but was delayed by Comico's bankruptcy. It was eventually published by DC in 1993.[17] Wagner regained sole copyright of Grendel that same year,[citation needed] and, much later, Mage, publishing the series through Dark Horse Comics and Image Comics respectively.

While losing Wagner's characters, Rev did manage to buy Elementals for his restart.[4][18] Comico began printing again in 1992 with various Elementals-related comics, and in 1993 flooded the market with various one-shot Elementals specials. They also created the Northstar imprint, which published material from 1991–1995. Budgetary problems and conflicts with creators over payments[19] led to the company's presses going silent again until 1995,[20] with yet another Elementals title (running three issues), and various Elementals spin-offs never making it past their first or second issues. Comico's line ended in 1997 with Elementals Sex Special vol. 2, #2, illustrated by Frank Quitely and Elementals: The Vampires Revenge #2, the second installment of a four-issue limited series starring the spin-off character Ratman, illustrated by Kelly McQuain.

^"Three Former Comico Titles Find New Homes," The Comics Journal #129 (May 1989), pp. 13–14: about Fish Police, Trollords, and The Trouble with Girls; and The Maze Agency, which had not yet found a new publisher.